The Red-Hot Ebola Drug Stock Tekmira Is Down 20%

Ward physician Thomas
Klotzkowski (R) cleans doctor for tropical medicine, Florian
Steiner, in a disinfection chamber at the quarantine station for
patients with infectious diseases at the Charite hospital in
Berlin August 11, 2014.REUTERS/Thomas
Peter

The Ebola trade is having a rough day.

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, which has had a volatile three days, was
down 18% on Tuesday after gains of 45% and 15% on
Friday and
Monday, respectively.

And though Tekmira has been the biggest individual mover on
Ebola-related news, it is not the only company working to develop
a treatment or vaccine for Ebola, for which there is currently no
cure.

According to
a statement from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, publicly-listed Newlink and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals
receive government funding for Ebola treatment candidates.

The CDC said BioCryst is getting funding from the Department of
Defense's Threat Reduction Agency, in addition to National
Institutes of Health support, to develop an antiviral Ebola
treatment. BioCryst was down 1% on Tuesday.

Newlink also
announced on August 5 that a subsidiary of the company
entered a $1 million letter contract with the U.S. Defense Threat
Reduction Agency aimed at bringing an Ebola vaccine licenses from
the Public Health Agency of Canada closer to human clinical
trials.

On Tuesday, Newlink shares were down nearly
6%.

The CDC's announcement also noted that Mapp
Biopharmaceutical, a private biopharma company based in San
Diego, is developing ZMapp, an experimental treatment for use in
individuals infected with Ebola virus.

The CDC said the treatment hasn't been tested in humans for
safety or effectiveness though Reuters
reported that ZMapp was used to treat a priest in Spain
who was evacuated from Liberia after testing positive for
Ebola.

As of Tuesday, more than 1,000 people have died due to Ebola,
according to
the World Health Organization. And in a statement on Tuesday,
the WHO said it "convened a consultation to consider and
assess the ethical implications for clinical decision-making of
the potential use of unregistered interventions."

"In order to understand the safety and efficacy of
these interventions, the group advised that, if and when they are
used to treat patients, there is a moral obligation to collect
and share all data generated, including from treatments provided
for ‘compassionate use’ (access to an unapproved drug outside of
a clinical trial)," the WHO said.